Lac Rocher

Lac Rocher Links December 2008 Preliminary Economic Assessment

Discovered in 1999, the Lac Rocher sulphide nickel deposit is located in northern Quebec some 140 kilometres northeast of the village of Matagami and about 50 kilometres east of paved Highway 109.

Location: Manitoba, Canada
Ownership: 100%
Commodity: Nickel
Project Type: Underground-ramp potential
Project Status: Pre-production

High-grade discovery of a 3.2m massive sulphide intersection returning a weighted average of 10.8% Ni as part of a 61.5m interval grading 1.69% nickel. Near-surface resource with year round all-weather access road to the property.

Located 140 km NE of Matagami in northwestern Quebec, the Lac Rocher Project has Measured and Indicated resources of 800,000 tonnes grading 1.12% nickel and an additional 440,000 tonnes grading 0.65% Ni Inferred, at a 0.5% nickel cut-off, for approximately 26 million pounds of in-situ nickel located between surface and 125 vertical metres. Mineralization is open to the southwest.

A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), which assumes offsite processing of mined material, was completed in 2008. The PEA envisions the Lac Rocher deposit being contract mined in two phases using mechanized cut-and-fill mining over a span of 24-26 months. In Phase One, 65,000 tonnes would be extracted at 1.75% nickel, 0.57% copper and 0.062% cobalt; in Phase Two an additional 252,730 tonnes would be extracted at 1.52% nickel, 0.59% copper and 0.051% cobalt. All extracted material is assumed to be transported offsite for processing at the Copper Rand mill in Chibougamau, Quebec.

The Company is reviewing the PEA to identify capital and operating cost savings and is evaluating the potential to use DMS (Dense Media Separation) technology for onsite upgrading of mined material in order to lower transportation costs. In addition, an all-weather access road has been completed and the Company continues to advance permitting in order to be in a position to commence mining when metal prices reach appropriate levels.